The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1887-09-01

J ments Of . Christian, and give testimony
In this cause on trial. Uncover your
heads, put your hand on the old family
the promises, and promise in the presence
Of high Heaven that you will tell
the truth, the whole truth and
nothing but the truth. With what you
have seen with your own eyes, and from
what you have heard with your own ears,
is there power In this Gospel TO give calm
ness and triumph in the last exigencyf
The response comes from all sides, from
young and old, and middle-aged:
We are witnesses.
You see, my friends, have not put be-
fore you an abstraction, or a chimera, or
! any thing like guess work. ! present you
| hffidavits OF che best men and women, liv.
ing or dead. Two witnesses in court will
| establish fact. Here are not two wit
nesses, but thousands Of witEesses-on
earth millions OF witnesses, and in Heaven
a great multitude of witnesses that no
man can number, testifving that there is
power in this religion to convert the soul,
to give comfort in trouble and TO afford
composure in the last hour,
If ten men should come to you when you
are sick with appalling sickness, and say
they had the same sickness, and took
certain medicine and it cured them, you
would probably take il. Now suppose ten
other men should come up and say:
1--WE don't believe there is any thing in
that medicine"
"Well," say have you ever tried it,"
"No. never tried it, but don't believe
there is any thing in it,"
OF course you discredt their testimony.
The skeptic may come and say:
"There is no power in your religion"
"Have you ever tried it,"
"No, no."
"Then, avaunt"
Let me take the testimony of the millions
Of souls that have been converted to God,
and Comforted in trial, and solaced in the
last hour. We will take their testimony
as they cry:
We are wltneSSes'
Some time ago Prof. Henry, OF Washing
ton, discovered a new star, and the tidings
spread by submarine telegram, and all the
observatores of Europe were watching for
that new star. Oh, hearer, looking out
through the darkness of thy soul, cans't
thou see bright light heaming on thee?
"Where" you say, 'where2 How can 1
find it?"
Look along by the line of the cross OF the
Son of God Do YOU not see him trembling
with all tenderness and beaming with all
hope? 1t is the Star of Bethlehem.
deep horror then my yitals froze,
Death struck, ceased the tide 10 stem.
When suddenly star arose
II was the Star OF Bethlehem.
Oh, nearer, get your eye on it. 1t is
easier for you now to become Christians
than it is to STAY away from Christ and
Heaven. When Nine. Sontag began her
musical career she was Kissed of the stage
at Vienna by the friends of her rival,
Amelia Steininger, who had already be-
gun to decline through her dissipation.
Years passed on. and one day Nine, Son.
tag, in her glory, was riding through the
streets Of Berlin, when she saw little
child leading a blind woman, and she
said:
"Come here, my little child, come here.
Who is that you are leading by the handE"
And the little child replied:
"That's my mother; that's Amelia Stein
niger. She used to be great singer, but
she lost her voice, and she cried so much
about it that she lost her eyesight."
"Give my love to her." said Nine. Son.
tag, land tell her an old acquaintance will
call on her this afternoon"
The next week in Berlin a vast assem-
blage gathered at a benefit for that poor
blind woman, and it was said that Nine.
Sontag sang that night as she had
never sung before. And she took a
skilled oculist, who in vain tried to
give eyesight to the poor blind
woman. Until the day of Amelia Stein
inger's death, Nine. Sontag took care of
her, and her daughter after her. That
was what the queen of song did former
enemy.
But, oh, hear more thrilling story still.
Blind, immortal, poor and lost, thou who,
when the world and Christ were rivals for
thy heart, didst hiss thy Lord away
Christ comes now to give thee sight, to
give thee a home, to give thee Heaven.
With more than Sontag's generosity he
comes now to meet your need. With more
than Sontag's music he comes to plead
for thy delverance.